Mike Mita

Mike Mita

Mike Mita

Why You Should Be Excited About the Housing Market

Aug 03, 2016

Market Trends

What an amazing year 2015 was for home sellers, and 2016 promises to be even better. By December of 2015, with 5.26 million sales, we had seen a more robust housing market than we've seen since 2006. In fact, as of early 2016, America's housing market had spent 43 consecutive months as a seller's market. Lawrence Yun, the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) chief economist chalks up the heavy sales volume to "the prospect of higher mortgage rates in coming months and warm November and December weather."

Get Very Excited if You Plan to Sell Your Home This YearThe combination of high demand for homes and shrinking inventories produces a seller's market and typically signals rising home prices. While many forecasters expect home prices to continue rising this year, they caution that they won't climb as quickly or as much as they did last year. "The NAR is calling for a 4.4 percent increase in existing home prices this year and 3.4 percent in 2017; other economists and strategists also put 2016 price growth in the 4 percent to 5 percent range," claims NAR's Adam DeSanctis.

In addition, inventories of available homes rose slightly last month. Whether or not this signals a trend toward a more balanced housing market remains to be seen. So, yes - although it sounds trite - the best time to sell your home is right now, while inventory is still low.
If you will be selling a home priced in the low-to-middle price tier for your market, expect it to go quickly and for top dollar. You will have little competition and the demand in this price range is strong, according to Shu Chen of CoreLogic.

While this type of market makes it easy for home sellers to become complacent, if you expect to get top dollar for your home and want it to sell quickly, do the work required to ensure that it's in move-in condition.

Buying a Home This Year?While it may seem like there isn't a whole lot for homebuyers to get excited about this year, there is one bonus for you: low interest rates. In fact, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey, 30-year mortgage rates fell in April 2016 to an average of 3.59 percent across the country, down from 3.65 percent the same time last year.

Combine the low rates with more relaxed lending guidelines and there is definitely good news for the 2016 homebuyer. Lower mortgage rates mean a lower monthly payment, which means you have more purchasing power, and that additional power can "mean the difference between buying a 2-bedroom home versus a 3-bedroom one; between buying a home with large closets versus small closets; and, between buying an upgraded home versus a dated one," according to Dan Green at The Mortgage Reports.

Another reason to get excited: It appears that those deep-pocketed investors who pay all cash for homes have left the market. Last year, 33.9 percent of all home sales were to cash buyers, the lowest rate since 2008, according to Molly Boesel with CoreLogic. While there is still plenty of competition out there from other homebuyers for homes in good locations and in decent condition, the playing field is a bit more level.

Yes, there is still a lot of competition from other homebuyers. This makes it more important than ever to have all your ducks in a row before making an offer on a property. Ensure you know exactly how much you can spend and that you've obtained a preapproval letter from your lender. Make your offer stand out from the others by keeping it lean and mean, with the shortest time periods for contingencies as possible. While we're still in a seller's market, come in with your highest and best offer. The market moves too quickly right now to assume the seller will negotiate over price.

Finally, if you've been sitting on the fence waiting for prices to come down, jump off. Home prices are currently rising twice as quickly as incomes, and it doesn't appear the situation will change in the near future.

Archives

On the Mike Mita team, we don't send you every home for sale in your area and hope you like them. We strategically identify exactly what you want and exactly what you need in a home. We then work with you dilligently to find the perfect home or investment. Once we've identified the possibilities, we get you the best price possible. We firmly believe that no one can find you the perfect home for less of your valuable time and no one can negotiate a better price than us. We're highly trained in helping identify buyers wants and needs and matching them with what's available in the market. We're highly trained in negotiating the best price for you. Americans only negotiate two times in their lives - buying a home and buying a car. Don't you want someone on your side who's A) Educated in the science of negotiation and B) Negotiating for a living every day?

Here, we pride ourselves on doing things a little differently:

Don't list your home... SELL IT!

On the Mike Mita team, we specialize in the truth. We won't say "Yes I can sell your home for $xxx,xxx, and ask for a price reduction 3 months later, just so we can get the listing. We do a thorough analysis of your local market and arm you with the facts. Then, we'll sit down and tell you about the innovative ways we can work together to get your house sold for the highest price, quickly. We're with RE/MAX because RE/MAX has the best systems, the best tools, and the best training to help us sell your home. We firmly believe no one in Rhode Island can sell your home quicker or higher than us for two reasons:

1. No one has better systems, tools, and training. 2. No one, BUT NO ONE will work harder than we to STRATEGICALLY market and sell your home

We don't just list your house and wait for the right buyer. We employ a studied and specific marketing plan, geared to your home specifically. This gets people in the door. Once there, we present the home to them with a studied and specificsales process. When you sell together with us, more people get in the door and more people want to buy your home.

After you have had the chance to review this information, contact us so we can tell you more about how we can help.